Imagination Movers back on the move with new Disney CD

Wearing blue jeans instead of their signature blue jumpsuits, the Imagination Movers visited the Elmwood set of their Disney Channel TV series last week for the first time since the Hollywood writers strike shut down production Dec. 20.

The writer's strike delayed the premiere of the Imagination Movers show from spring to fall, when it is expected to air seven days a week during Disney Channel's morning "Playhouse Disney" programming block.

The warehouse was ghostly quiet. Props were put away in a chain-link holding pen. Colorful rooms were dark and empty. The Movers were mostly alone.

"It's like the circus came to town, then moved on," "Mover Rich" Collins said, soaking in the stillness. "There's all this chaos and commotion, then nothing. It's like, 'Did that really happen?'"

It did, and it will again.

With writers once again pounding out Movers scripts, production resumes April 21 for three intense months of shooting. Dozens of crew members will bustle about the UNO Foundation's Robert E. Nims Center for Entertainment Arts, bringing the Imagination Movers' vision to vibrant life.

The strike delayed the premiere of the Movers show from spring to fall, when it is expected to air seven days a week during Disney Channel's morning "Playhouse Disney" programming block. But first, Walt Disney Records introduces the Movers' music to the nation with the March 18 release of their new CD, "Juice Box Heroes."

"Everyone thought it was still in the best interests of both the show and the Movers to get 'Juice Box Heroes' out," said Nancy Kanter, Playhouse Disney Worldwide senior vice president. "It will seed interest and get people even more familiar with (the band)."

So almost three years after the Movers -- Collins, Scott Durbin, Dave Poche and Scott "Smitty" Smith -- first entered into negotiations with Disney, the company's marketing might is being brought to bear on behalf of the kids' music quartet conceived at a Lakeview backyard birthday party.

As the Movers wandered the Nims Center last week, they rediscovered props from their "Imagination Warehouse" set: the day-glo orange bone xylophone from the Not-So-Scary Room. The trellis from the Bubble Garden. Oversize drums from the Drum Room. Wheels from the Wheel Room.

"That's wheely cool," Durbin cracked.

On Tuesday, March 18, Walt Disney Records introduces the Imagination Movers' music to the nation with the release of their new CD, "Juice Box Heroes."

Parked in a nearby hallway were the "super smasher" that shrinks objects, Scott's Shoelace Collection, a human-size slingshot and a pneumatic-powered knitting machine called the "Lickety Knitter."

The Movers are making the most of their unplanned four-month break, spending time with their families and stockpiling new music. But as they tour the set, their camaraderie and collective creativity kick in.

"After being on hiatus," Smith said, "it's invigorating to come look at it again."

They are ready to get back to work.

The Imagination Movers had shot only 12 of a planned 26 episodes when they ran out of scripts in late December. Already, Disney had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop the show, build the set, and hire a crew (including many locals), directors and writers for weeks of shooting.

If the writers strike had dragged on, how long would Disney have continued to rent an idle production studio?

"Luckily, we didn't have to cross that bridge," Kanter said. "We were able to hold on to the studio, and thankfully most of the crew is able to return."

During filming, Durbin said, "even grizzled crew guys were like, 'You guys are doing something special here.' That was reassuring."

"If we had a break and things weren't going well ..." Poche said, not finishing the thought.

Collins said the band remained confident.

"There was never a moment of, 'It's not coming back,'" he said. "But it felt like it could have been a long time. Of all the possible scenarios, this four-month delay was the best-case scenario."

Collins, Durbin, Smith and Poche reconnected with real life after weeks sequestered on set. They assessed finished episodes and conducted informal test-marketing on their own kids.

"It was like a half-time adjustment period," Collins said. "I'd look at my performances like, 'OK, that seemed hilarious at 2 in the morning, but it's not funny. But that thing I never thought twice about is great.'"

Momentum from the shoot carried over to the break. Since January, the Movers have spent two days most weeks in their bedroom-sized Nims Center recording studio, writing new music.

"As much as I hated for (the strike) to mess up our timeline, it was out of our control, and we turned a detriment into something that was a lot of fun," Smith said. "We were able to concentrate on our music."

The new material represents a leap forward in songwriting, arranging and musicianship. Adults often find Movers music more palatable than that of, say, the Wiggles or Doodle-bops. The Movers' new funk jam "Get Up" -- think the Gap Band meets Maroon 5 -- and electric guitar-powered "We Can Work Together" are far more ambitious than kids' music requires.

"We did two songs in a row that were very Toad the Wet Sprocket-y, then two that were very funkadelic," Durbin said. "It's not contrived. When we start jamming, boom, it happens."

At their earliest brain-storming sessions in Lakeview, they wrote the Movers theme song, "My Favorite Snack" and "I Want My Mommy." Those songs "will be with us for the rest of our lives," Collins said.

"And then I thought, 'That must have been a fluke. We can't possibly keep having ideas.' But pretty much every time we've gotten together for the next six years, we come up with something."

Whether fans will hear new songs at upcoming shows -- including an April 19 street festival outside the Louisiana Children's Museum and April 26 at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival -- is uncertain.

"Our live set is such a sacred thing," Collins said. "There are 10 or 15 songs that we know work; they're interactive and simple. They're not necessarily our best songs, but they're the best for the live show. "

"We're so excited about the new music that we forget that these 17 songs were our favorite 17 songs for the first four years of this project," Collins said. "We're really proud of them, and they've meant a lot to a lot of kids and families. That they're finally going out to America is very exciting."

The CD's pedigree is distinctly Big Easy. In addition to the four main Movers, performers include the Bucktown All-Stars horn section and former Dash Rip Rock drummer Kyle Melancon, both staples of Mover concerts; Galactic guitarist Jeff Raines; and noted jazz and funk keyboardist Robert Walter.

For most of the Movers' history, they were their own marketing team. They sold tens of thousands of their independent CDs and DVDs, along with a small fortune in T-shirts and other merchandise.

Walt Disney Records is distributing and marketing "Juice Box Heroes," but the four Movers still are hands-on. They orchestrated an early iTunes release of the first single, "Can You Do It?" Proceeds benefit the local nonprofit KIDsmART, which brings visual and performing arts education to area public schools.

And last week, the quartet spent a long afternoon in a humid, windowless second-floor meeting room at the Nims Center, autographing dozens of CDs ordered through the band's Web site.

There'll be little time for such chores once shooting for the TV show resumes in April. An episode must be completed every four days.

The old Monkees show of the 1960s -- vaguely psychedelic, slapstick skits interspersed with musical interludes -- is an obvious inspiration. Whenever possible, they pepper the show with subtle New Orleans references.

A wall in the main Idea Warehouse is decorated with a painting of a fire truck dubbed "Eagle 7," a tribute to Smith's old New Orleans Fire Department company, Engine 7, and its eagle mascot. A song heard on a warehouse radio was changed from polka to zydeco. Smitty busts out a naturally New Orleans, "Yeah, you right!"

Rough cuts of the first 12 episodes have test-marketed favorably with both parents and kids, Kanter said.

"We're really happy with what we're seeing," she said. "It's confirmed for us that the guys, in terms of their personalities and their music, are terrific. The show looks just the way we wanted it to look in terms of its color and vibrancy. We think we made good choices, so we're going to try and keep making them."

The Movers are especially excited that their beloved "Warehouse Mouse" character is a hit with kids.

"He's a mouse with an attitude," Smith said. "He's my little buddy."

"Like Skipper and Gilligan," Durbin replied.

No longer TV rookies, the Movers will plunge into the second round of shooting with fresh energy.

"When you've got the Disney PR team spending all day taking our pictures and telling us, 'Oh, you guys are so funny and smart and clever,' and there are lights and cameras on you, you think, 'Here we go! The snowball's rolling down hill!'" Collins said. "Over the past five years, we've had little moments like that.

"Then it just stops cold, and it's us in our boxer shorts in our living rooms. That feeling of being in the middle of a hurricane is absolutely gone."

After learning, then forgetting, that lesson, he hopes it sticks as the next whirlwind approaches.

"In a month, when the production gears up and there are make-up and wardrobe ladies and people with walkie talkies telling us we only have two minutes to pee and get back to the set, I think I'll finally remember that this is almost like a dream. It happens, and then it goes away. Real life is something different."

But, Collins said, "We can enjoy this for what it is."

Music writer Keith Spera can be reached at kspera@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3470.